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August 19, 2009
questions for Sen. Grassley
"I think that he is a good person, and good-intentioned. But I believe he didn't serve in government long enough to understand really how things work... He really does not have an understanding of how Congress operates."
-- Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), in a radio interview, about President Obama.
Senator, do you think that the Congress you understand so thoroughly (having served in it since 1974) operates well? Do you think that the American people hold its processes and leaders in high regard? What have you done as a sometime committee chair and leader to improve how it operates? If you had a chance to "explain" the process to our relatively young president, would you be able to justify what you explained?
August 19, 2009 10:25 AM | category: none
Comments
From Simeon Joffe, by email:
You have made the same mistake as so many others, namely, believing that Mr. Grassley has any goal other than to foil the president's agenda. He speaks in this instance to Obama's inexperience with congress. Obama of course has more experience than Bush II, Reagan or Clinton. So, it is nonsense. On the other hand, had Obama been in the Senate (or House) for twenty years, Grassley would have decried his insider/government hack problem.
Grassley offers no alternative, because he doesn't want to solve a problem, he wants only that Obama fails. Every statement in toward that end.
August 26, 2009 8:55 AM | Comments (1) | posted by Peter Levine